ANU Climate Update

The 19th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC is meeting in Warsaw this week to pave the way for a new climate agreement. At the ANU Climate Update, 4 December 2013, experts will share their views on the progress achieved and prospects for the future.

Working Towards Improving Resilience and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change in the Himalayan region

Untangling the confusion around land carbon and climate change mitigation policy

Policy-makers and the off-setting industry worldwide need to re-think the idea that planting trees can offset carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, says an international study published today in Nature Climate Change.

Himalyan Studies Program

ANU Climate Change Institute Tribute to Professor Michael Raupach FAA FTSE (1950-2015) Professor Raupach was a world-class researcher who was appointed Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute in early 2014, after a long and productive career at CSIRO.
He died after a brief illness. He was 64.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young AO said Professor Raupach was an eminent climate scientist who made a tremendous contribution to climate research, and to the ANU during his time at the University.
“Mike was a dedicated scientist and wonderful science communicator. He will be deeply missed by his many friends and colleagues both at the ANU and throughout Australia’s science community,” he said.
Mike was born in Adelaide, graduated from the University of Adelaide with First Class Honours in Science in 1971, and undertook a PhD at Flinders University and graduated in 1976 with a thesis titled “Atmospheric flux measurements by eddy correlation”.
Mike began his academic career at the University of Edinburgh with a Postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Meteorology in 1977, returning to Australia in 1979 to commence his long and successful career at CSIRO. In 1986 & 1987 Mike returned to the UK as visiting lecturer and fellow at the University of Reading and the University of Cambridge. Throughout the 1990 and 2000’s Mike developed his outstanding career at CSIRO when in 2005 he was appointed the leader of the “Continental Biogeochemical Cycles Team” and in 2010 was awarded the highest rank attainable as a research scientist at the CSIRO. From 2000 to 2008 he was an inaugural co-chair of the Global Carbon Project, an international project studying the natural and human influences on the global carbon cycle, and the interaction of the carbon cycle with climate.
In 2014 Mike jointed the ANU as the Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, which draws together the significant and diverse research efforts from across the ANU and positions the Institute and the University as a major player in the climate change arena, both in Australia and internationally.
Professor Raupach was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the American Geophysical Union. Throughout his career he published more than 150 scientific papers and 50 reports, and edited two books. He was a contributing author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report.
Former Climate Change Institute Director Professor Will Steffen led the tributes to Professor Raupach. "Mike was an outstanding scientist, always rigorous and insightful,” Professor Steffen said.
“He was brilliant at connecting his science with the policy community and with society generally, always with respect, dignity and thoughtfulness. He was a wonderful human being. We are all going to miss him very much."
Professor Ken Baldwin, Director of the ANU Energy Change Institute and a Deputy Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, said:
“Mike will always be remembered, not just as one of Australia’s pre-eminent scientists, but also as a supportive and generous colleague, and a great communicator with people everywhere. He made the Institute, the University and the scientific and wider community a much richer and better place.”
Emeritus Professor Patrick Troy from the Fenner School of Environment and Society, said that there is no doubt that the quality, in its breadth and depth, of Professor Raupach’s research is indeed an inspiration to those that follow him.
“My only regret is that we have had too short a time to work together for the ends we shared”
Professor Michael Roderick, from the Research School of Biology and Research School of Earth Sciences, said Professor Raupach was a man with great knowledge across a range of scientific fields.
“Mike Raupach was a Renaissance man. It is rare for someone to have skills that range from the fundamentals of turbulence, all the way to carbon uptake by vegetation, and more recently, to changes in the global carbon cycle,” Dr Roderick said.
“He was using that great intellect in his most recent role as Director of the Climate Change Institute, and he will be sadly missed.”
Professor Graham Farquhar, from the Research School of Biology, also paid tribute.
“It’s very sad that someone so productive, and such a good scientific communicator should be lost at the height of his powers,” Professor Farquhar said.
Mike’s colleagues at the ANU Climate Change Institute and Energy Change Institute Secretariat recall him not only as being a brilliant scientist, but more importantly a brilliant communicator who conveyed scientific facts from the heart. In the office, his dedication to his work inspired everyone. As one colleague said: “Mike had great enthusiasm for the Institute, and we aim to continue this dedication in memory of him. Mike was just a really nice guy and an absolute pleasure to work for”.

The second workshop on the project “Working Towards Improving Resilience and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change in the Hindu-Kush-Himalayan Region” (PSLP-IRAP)" took place in Kathamndu, Nepal. The aim of this project “ is to use participatory approaches to identify the risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities arising from climate change impacts on small upstream communities in Nepal and India and downstream communities in Bangladesh. The project will facilitate capacity to help communities cope better with those risks and vulnerabilities identified. A key objective is the development of a transferrable climate change adaptation toolkit, which is based on a set of scientific and evidence based methodologies or tools to guide local planners and policy makers during the adaptive response planning process. This project is supported by the Public Sector Linkages Program (PSLP) under the auspices of the Australian AID Program (DFAT). The Australian National University's lead public sector counterpart agency is the Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In April 2014 the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) approved funding for work to begin on the development of the climate change adaptation toolkit in Nainital, India, following an extensive independent review of all proposals submitted to APN’s ARCP call for proposals. The first inception workshop was held in Kathmandu, Nepal.